William Pauls

Latest Publications

On February 2, the Obama Administration released its fiscal year 2016 budget (FY 2016 Budget). The hallmarks of the FY 2016 Budget are proposals that would impose (i) a minimum tax on the current foreign earnings of U.S....more

This week the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Subcommittee), in conjunction with the Subcommittee’s hearing on July 22, 2014, released a report on...more

More than four years after Congress enacted the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 2010, Pub. L. 111-147, which added the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) provisions to the Internal Revenue Code, FATCA...more

Time may be running out for taxpayers to correct technically deficient gain recognition agreements (GRAs) under the relief procedure contained in the Directive on Examination Action With Respect to Certain Gain Recognition...more

On May 7, Treasury and the IRS published proposed regulations addressing which corporation succeeds to the tax attributes of another corporation that transfers assets in an acquisitive asset reorganization described in IRC §§...more

Pursuant to Notice 2014-33 (the Notice), the IRS announced that it will treat calendar years 2014 and 2015 as a transition period for the administration and enforcement of the due diligence, reporting, and withholding...more

On March 4, the Obama Administration released its fiscal year 2015 budget (FY 2015 Budget). In keeping with the Administration’s past budgets, the FY 2015 Budget includes a number of tax proposals that target insurance...more

On February 26, Representative Dave Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, released his much-awaited comprehensive tax reform plan (the “Camp Proposal”). That proposal seeks to cut marginal tax rates...more

On February 26, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) released a “Discussion Draft” of the Tax Reform Act of 2014, which sets forth his much-anticipated tax reform proposals. Of note, the Discussion...more

On February 20, Treasury and the IRS issued new final and temporary Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) regulations. In brief, the new FATCA regulations provide positive changes with respect to several issues raised...more

On February 4, the IRS issued a new revenue ruling – Rev. Rul. 2014-7 – that indicates that the IRS no longer plans to issue formal guidance concerning the treatment of the dividends-received deduction (DRD) with respect to...more

With the first month of the year behind us, this report outlines major insurance topics that we will be watching throughout 2014.
Forces, trends and events that we believe will affect regulation, transactions and...more

On February 5, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued its opinion in Validus Reinsurance, Ltd. v. United States, which is the first case to involve a challenge to the IRS’s position on the “cascading”...more

On January 29, Treasury and the IRS issued proposed regulations that would dramatically change the manner in which partnership liabilities are allocated among the partnership’s partners under IRC § 752 (the Proposed...more

On January 17, Treasury and the IRS published new temporary and proposed regulations under Section 7874 of the Internal Revenue Code that expand the reach of the so-called “public offering rule” of Section 7874(c)(2)(B) to...more

On January 14, the United States Tax Court issued a reviewed opinion in Rent-A-Center Inc. v. Commissioner, 142 T.C. 1 (2014), which held that subsidiaries of Rent-A-Center Inc. (RAC) were entitled to claim deductions for...more

Section 355 is one of the few bright spots remaining for corporate tax planners since repeal of the General Utilities doctrine in the mid-1980s. However, the tax-free treatment of corporate spin-offs and other separations...more

On August 26, 2013, the United States Treasury Department issued new final regulations under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 482. The new regulations provide guidance on the “income method” for determining taxable income...more

On July 12, 2013, the IRS, in Notice 2013-43, and the Department of the Treasury in a Press Release of the same date, extended the implementation dates by six months for many of the withholding and account due diligence...more

On June 25, the IRS expanded its “no-rule” policy with respect to spin-offs and other tax-free corporate separations, liquidations, contributions, and reorganizations. Effective for letter ruling requests received by the IRS...more

In a move that was nearly 27 years in the making, the Treasury Department (Treasury) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued long-awaited final regulations under §336(e) (the Final Regulations) on May 10. Section 336(e)...more